THE REFORMATION SETTLEMENT.* THERE are few subjects to which reference
is more glibly or more ignorantly made in the current ecclesiastical controversy than the "Reformation Settlement," and there are few persons better qualified to enlighten the public mind on that subject than Canon Ma,cColl. Wherefore, we could wish that the form and arrangement of the treatise he has just produced upon it were up to the standard of the substance, which, in the main, is excellent. The order of the chapters is somewhat wanting in consecutiveness, as may be judged from the titles of the first six:—" The Presence of Christ in the Eucharist," "The Eucharistic Sacrifice," "The Reformation, its Causes and Results," "The Testimony of Anglican Divines," "Pro- pinquity of the Spiritual World," " Sacerdotalism." There is also a good deal of more or less irrelevant, though often in- teresting, matter, particularly in the long and discursive Introductory Letter addressed to Sir William Harcourt, and in the last two chapters on "Anglican and Roman Orders" and "The Prisoner of the Vatican." Much of the space, and, if the suggestion may be made to so facile a writer as Canon MacColl, of the time, devoted to these parts of his book might have been with advantage saved and applied to the develop- ment of a connected story of the Reformation and post- Reformation periods. Something of that kind, at any rate, will certainly be desired by the ordinary lay reader. In its _absence the student can hardly do better than read with Canon MacColl's book the chapters bearing on the same periods in the admirable short History of .th,e Church. of England by the late Mr. H. 0. Wakeman, whose early death is so widely and deservedly deplored.
• This Reformation Settlement: Examined in the Light of History and Law. With an Introdudory Letter to the Right Hon. Sir W. V. Harcourt, H.P. By the Rev. Malcolm MacColl. London : Longmane and Co. [Th. ed. net.] It seems necessary to point out these defects in the popular aspects of a work undoubtedly intended to influence a wide public. But having done so we hasten to add our tribute of cordial respect to the general conception of Canon MacColl's book, and to the courage, vigour, and thoroughness with which he has carried it out. The central Point round which, though not always perhaps in view of which, the present con- troversies are waged, is that of the teaching in the Church of England with regard to the nature of the Eucharistic service, and the manner in which that teaching may or ought to be symbolised in Ritual. It is, therefore, by a sound theological and literary instinct that Canon MacColl is governed in placing in the forefront of his argument a disquisition on the doctrines of the Real Presence and the Eucharistic Sacrifice.
To treat dogmatically of these exalted themes is hardly within the province of secular journalism. What we have always been concerned in these columns to maintain is the wide comprehensiveness of the Church of England, and, in relation to present disputes, the absolute variance from his- torical tradition involved in any attempt to deny standing ground within that Church to the holders, teachers, and symbolisers of what are known as High, or even advanced, Sacramental views. This position, we think, Canon MacColl's arguments and citations prove decisively to be impregnable ; and thus though we do not wish our readers to infer that we endorse Canon Ma,cColl's views as to the sacramental question, we find no difficulty in sympathising with the general result of his book. It makes for inclusion, and not for exclusion, and so deserves to be commended.
It is difficult for any candid person to read the excellent chapter in the present volume entitled "The Testimony of Anglican Divines" without recognising the entire justice of the striking passage quoted by our author from a charge delivered in 1866 by the late Bishop Thirlwall, who is universally recognised as " one of the most learned and one of the ablest of Broad Churchmen " :— " The Church of England," said that distinguished prelate, "has dealt with the subject (of the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist) in a spirit of true reverence as well as of prudence and charity. She asserts the mystery inherent in the institution of the Sacrament, but abstains from all attempts to investigate or define it, and leaves the widest range open to the devotional feelings and the private meditations of her children with regard to it. And this liberty is so large, and has been so freely used, that, apart from the express admission of Transubstantiation or of the grossly carnal notions to which it gave rise, and which, in the minds of the common people, are commonly inseparable from it, I think there can hardly be any description of the Real Presence which, in some form or other; is universally allowed, that would not be found to be authorized by the language of eminent divines of our Church-; and I am not aware, and do not believe, that our most advanced Ritualists have in fact outetepped those very ample bounds."
In our judgment, Canon MacColl proves the accuracy of Bishop Thirlwall's statement as to the liberty of belief and of teaching on the great subject in question, as illustrated by the writings of Anglican divines. More than that, he states and enforces the associated doctrines of the Real Presence and the Eucharistic Sacrifice in such a fashion as may tend to lessen the reluctance even of those whose religious thought is cast in more definitely Protestant moulds to recognise the admissibility of such doctrines in our national Church.
Having demonstrated the historic width and the present- day reasonableness of Anglican liberty in the realm of Sacramental teaching, Canon MacColl is not less concerned to exhibit the injustice of the attempt to suppress the RitUal by which "High " views are symbolised and set forth. And,-in particular, he deals at length, and very effectively indeed, with the judgments of the Judicial Committee on points connected with the Ornaments Rubric. In the opinion of the present writer, Canon MacColl places beyond reasonable doubt the fact that the plain meaning of the rubric by which the ornaments of the Church and of its ministers were deliberately regulated at the last revision of the Prayer-book, which, of course, has Parliamentary as well RS Synodical authority, was set aside by the Judicial Committee, and a wholly non-natural meaning read into it and made of penal obligation. This was done, as he shows convincingly, by forcing the Rubric of 1662 to bear a reference, of which it contains no indication whatever, to a proceeding of Archbishop Parker's a hundred years before, which had no legal authority even at the time, and •Iviiich, even if it could be supposed relevant at all, is shown by a ritilit study of contemporary history to have been aimed in -the opposite direction to that attributed to 'it by the Judicial
Committee.
Another point of great importance on which, as it seems to us, Canon MacColl achieves special success is his demon- stration of the unhistoric character of -the claim, put forward by Sir William Harcourt in his most aggressive manner, that the Crown and Parliament have a right to determine the doctrine, discipline, and ceremonial of the Church of England. The latest, and a most decisive, precedent on this subject occurs in connection with William M.'s comprehension scheme in 1689. "The King," Canon MacColl points out, "attempted to impose his scheme on the Church without the assent of Convocation, but was arrested by addresses from both Houses. of Parliament praying that according to the ancient practice and usage of this Kingdom in time of Parlia- ment,' his Majesty would call Convocation together, to be advised with in ecclesiastical matters." Convocation was called together, and rejected the scheme. That may have been wise or unwise, but the constitutional teaching of the incident is beyond question. We may not agree will all Canon Ma,cColl's conclusions, but we must congratulate him on having produced a book which is calculated to promote sound thinking on the relations between Church and State, and to dissuade the candid reader from participation in efforts towards a reduction of the ancient and clearly established liberties of the Anglican clergy.
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